We have detected that cookies are not enabled on your browser. Please enable cookies to ensure the proper experience.
Warning: JavaScript is required for some functionalities of this page. Please enable the use of JavaScript in your browser. Log In
Register My Account
Log Out (%1$s)

We have detected that cookies are not enabled on your browser. Please enable cookies to ensure the proper experience.

Warning: JavaScript is required for some functionalities of this page. Please enable the use of JavaScript in your browser.

“And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.” ? J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I know the scheduled date is November 18th and I suspect 0% will vote for a date before the 18th, 80% will vote for the 18th, and some yahoos will vote a date after; but given that I miss about 90% of my personal deadlines, and most software companies miss at least 50% I'm still curious what the weighted-average expectation is. I guess I just like computing expectations.

Turbine has generally kept to its proposed release dates, with the exception of Riders of Rohan. All of the previous expansions launched on schedule. Certain features might have been held back, like the instances for Rise of Isengard, but the main expansion went ahead as planned. I think Turbine has factored in the delay of RoR into its plans for HD, not only announcing a later than usual release date (late November, compared to the September release we've had for the last few years), but waiting until much closer to the date to make the announcement, ensuring it can be fairly certain of launching the product on time. So, 18 November it is.

The question is: will we still get an additional update in December? We are supposed to get a housing update before the end of the year. Turbine is likely already working on this, or some aspects of it, but it would have only a month to polish it for a December release - especially considering it would need to release it before ~20 December to allow time for a hotfix if anything major breaks. Of course, the update may focus entirely on housing, with no other features, and therefore could also release on target.

It will be released when Turbine considers it ready to be released. Turbine has announced the 18th of November to be the release date. Unless this statement is followed up by a new, different statement, that is what the release date will be.

Now for speculation. Yohoo bringeth thy Tinfoil Hattery!

The closer we get to the 18th of November, the less likely it becomes that the release will be rescheduled. Much of this of course depends on the results of the Beta. As with any Beta time will have been reserved for finetuning and bugfixing. This time can be insufficient if 1) too much has to be tuned/fixed 2) fixing runs into unsuspected hard to fix issues. Both of these are however more likely to happen in an Alpha than in a Beta. Still, the manure could hit the ventilator - trying to avoid 'fan' in this metaphore. And how the Beta fares? We can only speculate.

Let's then speculate by 'what we are not hearing' - this is BTW where that tinfoil hat helps you by keeping you from hearing most of anything. We are not hearing Sapience announce a reschedule of the release. Speculation: Beta runs within Turbine's planned perimeters and 18th of November is indeed set.

Well since the Big Battles seemed to be in the making much longer than stuff back in ROR and they seemed alot more open about there being no conventional instance cluster.
I'd say 18th is spot on.
The only thing i could see it being pushed back for is a complete fubar of the new trait trees but doubt it.

LOL, so Sapience is suggesting it actually won't be Nov. 18th, given the recent commitments Turbine has broken I'm guessing?

However I disagree, I believe they need to hit Nov. 18th., or lose significant sales.

I don't believe 11/18 was picked because the expansion will be ready (it won't), I believe it was picked because if they release any later, folks will have spent their discretionary budgets on other holiday purchases/x-mas shopping and won't afford a more expensive luxury item for themselves.

So they picked the last day feasible before Black Friday and staff having Thanksgiving off.

Whomever mentioned making adjustments per beta feedback, in the past, game breaking things found during beta were not resolved then, and in some cases not even acknowledged, until well after release. My perception is Turbine doesn't use beta to test anything, but simply showcase/promote new content. The true beta test is between when things go live and the first patch. If you've participated in prior betas, you can see this in the beta notes, where changes are usually tweaks to newly implemented things, rather than results of user feedback, and in the forum posts after release, when the general populace complains about the same issues that users reported during the beta. You find hopeful beta testers demoralized by the process, as it appears the time they invest in reporting things doesn't get acted on, which carries over in the forums and in game when you suggest people /bug something they discover but their reaction is, "why bother?", based on prior experience.

LOL, so Sapience is suggesting it actually won't be Nov. 18th, given the recent commitments Turbine has broken I'm guessing?

No idea where you got that from. I'm suggesting no such thing. I was simply pointing out that we did announce a release date. There seem to be a good many people who somehow managed to miss it (based on my PMs asking when we'd announce a release date).

I think it will be when they have already announced. If they push it back to improve the quality, that is a massive bonus in my book. The only way the players lose in this scenario is if the game comes out buggy. We still have large amounts of content to enjoy while they squash bugs.

No idea where you got that from. I'm suggesting no such thing. I was simply pointing out that we did announce a release date. There seem to be a good many people who somehow managed to miss it (based on my PMs asking when we'd announce a release date).

Originally Posted by Eartholloth

Don't know how you got that from what he said.

Is this the appropriate venue to derail the topic into things Turbine has announced/said that have subsequently been reneged upon, not met, or otherwise dropped? There are plenty of other threads covering those, and it's not in my interest, nor, in my opinion, the health of the communities', to focus on such.

As I said, timing of market forces causes me to believe they will have to release then, regardless of status/announcements.

Is this the appropriate venue to derail the topic into things Turbine has announced/said that have subsequently been reneged upon, not met, or otherwise dropped? There are plenty of other threads covering those, and it's not in my interest, nor, in my opinion, the health of the communities', to focus on such.

As I said, timing of market forces causes me to believe they will have to release then, regardless of status/announcements.

½

Originally Posted by bastiat1

I know the scheduled date is November 18th and I suspect 0% will vote for a date before the 18th, 80% will vote for the 18th, and some yahoos will vote a date after; but given that I miss about 90% of my personal deadlines, and most software companies miss at least 50% I'm still curious what the weighted-average expectation is. I guess I just like computing expectations.

Just a thought, since you seem to like dem polls. How about making one for whether we think they should've postponed the release date, due to all the bugs and stuff? Sorta along the lines of: 'The official LotrO poll for if the community generally seem to think release dates met > finished products with no bugs in 'em?'

[I]In the sea without lees standeth the Bird of Hermes.
[/I][I]When all his feathers be from him gone, He standeth still here as a stone.
Here is now both white and red, And all so the stone to quicken the dead[/I][I].
The Bird of Hermes is my name, Eating my wings to make me tame.[/I]

Nov. 18th is plenty of time for them to fix whatever bugs it may have, and therefore, I think, won't be delayed. RoR was delayed since the release date was so soon and they needed to fix some things, but with the late announcement of the release date, I think Turbine learned not to just set a date without planning, and that's why they've only just announced it, since they know it'll be in a good state upon release.

Crogard Himblefoot - Hobbit Burglar of Brandywine
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies opens Dec. 17, 2014!
[URL=http://s286.photobucket.com/user/LOTRfreak93/media/93aa4454-2af6-4ecc-9d04-5dc434914d4d.png.html][IMG]http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll113/LOTRfreak93/93aa4454-2af6-4ecc-9d04-5dc434914d4d.png[/IMG][/URL]